Japan’s Largest Bank and Cloud Delivery Giant Akamai Announce Blockchain Payment Network

The Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) has partnered with major U.S.-based cloud delivery platform Akamai Technologies to release a global payment network based on blockchain, Cointelegraph Japan reports today, May 21.

Akamai, a Massachusetts-based firm, was able to test the blockchain platform “under realistic business conditions,” showing a capability for processing a million transactions per second and a capacity for finalizing transactions in under two seconds, according to MUFG’s official press release.

Tokyo-based MUFG’s and Akamai’s payment network, which will go live starting in the 2018 fiscal year, will include an interface that functions as a communication network, and will allow Internet of Things (IoT) payment methods like pay-per-use and micropayments.

Last week, MUFG’s banking unit – the world’s fifth largest bank by total assets – announced that it plans to trial its own cryptocurrency, the MUFG coin, by 2019. The bank has had plans to create its own cryptocurrency since as far back as 2016.